Blisters

“If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” – Romans 12:18

Blisters. No one likes them, but everyone gets them. I’ve recently done some research on these aggravating little things. Wikipedia describes the primary cause as “forceful rubbing (friction).” What a pain they are, literally!

Often when someone gets a blister, they cease the activity which caused it. Raking the yard caused a blister? Well, I won’t do that again! Walking in a new pair of shoes? Put them away and don’t wear those suckers any more.

Sadly, some people cause us “blisters,” maybe not on our body, but on our psyche’. They are just painful to be around. These folks cause friction wherever they go, and what’s worse, some even seem to enjoy it!

The easiest remedy is to just avoid them like the activities which cause blisters on our hands and feet. But that’s not the direction this passage takes us. This verse, and the context from which it is taken, tells us we are to “live with” them, be nice to them, and not to be overcome by evil, but to “overcome evil with good.”

Not an easy task to be sure, but one to which we, as Christians, are called.